The present invention relates to an arm structure for bending and cabling a wire harness for power feeding along a second arm pivotally supported to a first arm of a turn type.
FIG. 6 shows one example of a related arm structure for power feeding.
In this structure, a first long arm 62 is pivotally supported to a protector base 61 made of synthetic resin, a second short arm 63 is pivotally supported to the first arm 62, and a wire harness fixing portion 64 is disposed integrally to the second arm 63, a wire harness 65 is fixed to the wire harness fixing portion 64 and while each of the arms 62, 63 is turned along the protector base 61 with swing of forward and backward directions of the wire harness 65, and the second arm 63 is turned at an angle larger than that of the first arm 62 and flexibility in bending of the wire harness 65 is increased.
The first arm 62 is urged upward by a torsion spring (not shown) and absorbs looseness of the wire harness 65. A protector cover 66 made of synthetic resin is attached to the protector base 61, and a protector 67 is constructed of the protector base 61 and the protector cover 66. A power feeding apparatus 68 is constructed of the protector 67, each of the arms 62, 63, etc. The protector 67 is screwed and fixed to a slide door (not shown) of an automobile.
At the time of opening (during opening) of the slide door, the second arm 63 turns forward larger than the first arm 62 while each of the arms 62, 63 turns forward as shown by a solid line of FIG. 6, and at the time of closing (during closing) of the slide door, each of the arms 62, 63 turns backward at substantially the same angle as shown by a chain line of FIG. 6.
One end of the wire harness 65 bends along an end portion of the side of an axis portion 69 of the second arm 63 from the wire harness fixing portion 64 and also traverses the first arm 62 and is led out inside the slide door through a wire harness insertion path (wire harness fixing portion) 70 of a protector front end, and the other end of the wire harness 65 is cabled from the wire harness fixing portion 64 to the side of a vehicle body and swings forward and backward along a skirt part (a lower opening) 71 of the protector 67 with opening and closing of the slide door.
As a protector structure (not shown) for arm structure for power feeding other than the above example, a situation in which a link arm (first arm) and a wire harness holder having the second arm pivotally supported to the distal end side of the link arm are turned and a corrugate tube of the wire harness is fixed to the wire harness holder and an electric wire portion of the wire harness led out of the corrugate tube is bent in substantially an S shape through the back side of the link arm and is led out of the protector front end to the outside and the link arm is urged upward by the torsion spring is described in, for example, JP-A-2009-65814 (FIG. 1).
However, the related arm structure for power feeding had fears that when the wire harness 65 bends in a small radius along an end (proximal end) of the side of the axis portion 69 of the second arm 63 (bent parts are shown by numerals 65a, 65b) particularly during opening of the slide door of the solid line or at the time of closing of the slide door of the chain line as shown in FIG. 6, strong bending stress acts on the wire harness 65 and bending durability of the wire harness 65 reduces or operability of opening and closing of the slide door reduces.
These fears may be caused similarly in the case of applying the arm structure for power feeding to a slide structural body such as the slide door of an apparatus etc. other than the vehicle or the slide door of the vehicle other than the automobile. The vehicle body etc. is collectively called as a fixed structural body with respect to the slide structural body.